My Friend, The Zombie
by Draka Dracula
Summary: Hocus Pocus Dani Dennison lost a friend that fateful Halloween. She suddenly realizes that she made two friends that night. But will she lose this second friend, as well?


**My Friend, The Zombie**

**By: Jo Ann/Draka Dracula**

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Disclaimer: _Hocus Pocus _and it's characters belong to Disney, not me. I wish I could claim Billy Butcherson (the Zombie), though…

Summery: Dani Dennison lost a friend that fateful Halloween. She suddenly realizes that she made _two _friends that night. But will she lose this second friend, as well?

Author's Note: This is a one-shot story, to get the feel of the characters. I've recently seen the movie, and fell for Billy right off. There is a sad lack of Billy Butcherson-involved fanfiction for the _Hocus Pocus _fics, and I intend to remedy that.

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The week after the Halloween of 1993, Dani Dennison moped around the Dennison home, mourning the loss of Binx, a black cat who had been the immortal body of Thackery Binx. Thackery had been a boy changed into a cat by the Sanderson sisters –three witches in the seventeenth century—as a reminder of his failure to save his sister, Emily, from having her life force stolen.

When Dani, her brother, Max, and Max's girlfriend, Allison –aided by a gentle Zombie named Billy Butcherson—defeated the Sandersons, Binx also died. The magic that had kept him immortal vanished when the witches were defeated, and since his body was over three hundred years old, the talking black cat died quietly. He died upon Emily's tombstone. But Thackery's spirit was free, along with that of his sister. The three twentieth-century children watched as the brother and sister of the past entered Heaven.

Still, Dani was saddened at the loss of her friend. She missed the talking cat every moment since that Halloween night, wishing that he would return to life like he did before the destruction of the witches.

It was in the middle of the week when Dani remembered that she had made _another_ friend that night. But would _he_ still be –"alive", for want of a better word—or would he be gone, as well. Dani loved to make friends, but by the same token, she hated to lose friends, as well. She had already lost her beloved Binx; but what about Billy? Had she also lost _him_ as well?

Dani decided to find out that Saturday. She just _had_ to know if Billy still "lived".

_-_-_

Early Saturday morning, Dani got up and dressed. She wore her warmest sweater –pink, with cloth flowers sewed onto it—jeans, socks, and sneakers. She went downstairs for breakfast, then grabbed her coat and left the house, saying only that she was going to pay a quick visit to a friend, and that she would be back soon.

Max noticed her leave, and heard her mention "a friend". He had a feeling as to where she was going, so he went to his room and retrieved a shoebox. Putting the shoebox in the basket of his bike, Max followed Dani, meeting Allison on the way. Together, they continued to follow the little girl.

Dani soon came to her destination –an old graveyard. Among the graves was the one for Emily Binx. But it was not Emily Dani was interested in. Instead, she turned to another grave. The headstone was old, and carved in a time when icons of death –such as skeletons and coffins—where the norm for tombstones. On the grave marker she was looking at was a skull and crossbones at the top, and underneath the words was a skeleton lying in a coffin, laying lengthwise on their side. The words in between read:

Here Lyes Y Body of

M. William Butcherson

Died Y 1st of May 1693

LOST SOUL

It was sad to look at, especially the last two words. The straying lover of Winifred Sanderson, Billy was poisoned, then his mouth was sewn shut. In the twentieth century, he would be resurrected as a slave to Winifred. Only when he was able to cut the strings that held his mouth shut was Billy able to free himself of the witches. He then joined the children in the battle against the Sandersons.

Dani hoped that he was still there, and would talk to her. She did not want to lose him as she had Binx. She crouched down near the headstone.

"Billy," she said softly, not wanting to disturb him, but still hoping that he would hear her. "It's Dani. I hope I'm not bothering you, but I want to know if you are still –well, alive, I guess. If you don't want to answer, that's okay. I just –I made two friends this past Halloween, and I lost one. I don't want to lose the other. I just want to know if you would like for me to come and talk with you sometimes. If you don't mind, that is…"

"Well, well, well," a sneering voice interrupted her. "It if isn't Hollywood's little, bratty sister!"

Dani knew that voice well enough. It was the bully, Jay. And where Jay was, you usually found Ernie, a.k.a. "Ice". She stood and moved to the foot of Billy's grave, almost to protect it. She faced the two older boys.

"Yeah," Ice chimed in. "Don't you know the dead can't talk?"

"Unless you have an Ouija board," Jay added.

"Good one, Jay!" Ice laughed. "An 'Ouija board'!"

The boys continued to laugh at Dani's expense. Meanwhile, Dani was getting more and more upset at the mean boys. Being the witches' prisoners had not changed their attitude one bit!

In the middle of their merriment, however, the boys spotted something behind Dani. It looked like the figure of a man, but where had he come from? As the figure got closer, however, their expressions changed to fear. When the "man" was right behind the little girl, the bullies decided that their mothers were calling them and that they had to leave at once. Then, Jay and Ice turned and fled from the cemetery.

Dani at first thought their change of expressions was a trick to get her to turn around, at which time they would have done something to her while she was distracted. It was only when they had disappeared from view that she turned around to see who –or what—was behind her.

He stood there in his dark, soiled, torn clothing, his black hair dull and frizzled from being in the grave for over three centuries. His skin was a pale yellow, and his face was gaunt, but his eyes were clear, though sunken, and his mouth was still ringed with the remains of the strings that had once sewn his mouth shut. This frightening apparition smiled warmly down at Dani.

"Billy!" Dani cried happily. She threw her arms around him for a big hug. "I thought I'd lost you, too!"

"Oh, ye will never lose me, sweet girl," the Zombie said gently, giving her a hug in return. His voice had lost the gravely quality that it had when they first met. Now it sounded softer, more human

"Then, you heard me?" she asked. He nodded. "And you don't mind me coming and talking with you?"

"I wouldst never mind thee speaking to me, Dani," he answered. "The grave is a lonely place, and company is a rare sweet for one such as I."

"Billy!" a voice greeted him. Zombie and girl turned to see Max and Allison coming down the small hill to the cemetery. "Good to see you again!"

"Tis good to see thee, as well, Max," Billy grinned. "And you, as well, Miss Allison."

"Were you watching?" Dani asked suspiciously.

"Yeah," Max admitted. "We arrived while those two were teasing you."

"We would have done something," Allison added. "But when we saw Billy climb out of his grave, we knew he'd take care of it."

"Yeah," Max could not help but laugh. "Did you see the expressions on their faces? And then that flat-out run?"

"They should try out for the track team," Allison added with a giggle. "They'd be naturals!"

"What's in the shoebox, Max?" Dani asked. The mood turned somber.

"It's Binx's body," her brother explained. "I retrieved it after school Monday, and haven't had the chance to bury him properly. Besides, I thought we should all be here for a proper funeral."

"Funerals in the seventeenth century were not ceremonial," Allison said. "They were private; just the family and friends. Most of the time, there would not be a public announcement of the death until that Sunday, at church." The three children looked to Billy for confirmation.

"Allison is correct," the Zombie answered. "And if one was wealthy enough, the body would be buried on the family's property, many times, in a mausoleum or family crypt."

"We are lacking those, I'm afraid," Max said, thinking.

"Why don't we bury him with Emily?" Dani suggested.

"Hmmm…The box _is _small," Allison said. "And since we _are _burying the mortal remains of one Thackery Binx, it wouldn't be desecration of a grave to dig a little on Emily's grave. Just enough to bury the shoebox –and Binx." Again, the children looked to Billy to confirm this.

"There shouldst not be any reason we could not bury him with his sister," Billy nodded.

"Let's get to work, then," Max nodded.

For about a half an hour, the four of them worked on digging the small grave-within-a-grave for the cat body. When the hole was deep enough, Max eased the box in, the top securely on. No one had anything they wanted to say, so they carefully replaced the dirt on the grave. The result was a small mound on top of the larger mound.

"Do you think we need a tombstone?" Dani asked.

"I'd like to," Max replied. "But anyone who saw it might ask questions about it."

"Here's hoping that no one will ask questions about the small mound on top of her grave," Allison added.

"Did you mean what you told Dani, Billy?" Max asked, changing the subject to a far happier topic. "I mean, about us coming and talking with you at your grave?"

"Of course, I did!" the young Zombie laughed. "Anytime thee wish to speak with me, just come here and talk. I will speak with thee." He led them back to his grave, where they sat around and talked until lunch-time.

"I wish we had thought about bringing lunch," Allison said. "A picnic with our friend would be perfect, even in the fall."

"If I couldst but eat," Billy sighed. "But I cannot. Nor can I drink a drop. My body couldst not use such substance, nor couldst I taste food or drink, as I once could."

"Awww…" Dani replied sadly, giving the Zombie a hug. "Poor Billy!"

"It is alright, sweet girl," Billy smiled, rubbing her shoulder and arm. "I shall manage. But it is best if the three of ye be off for thy mid-day meal. I shall be here if thee wishes to speak more. Just come to my grave and call as ye did before. I will answer."

"Okay, Billy," Max replied, rising from his seat. "See you later, then." The girls also got up and with their own, "Later, Billy!" they left with Max.

Billy watched them go, smiling to himself. Three hundred years ago, he would never have dreamed of befriending three children like Max, Allison, and Dani. Especially in the world of the twentieth century! This made him think: _I need to learn about this new century. Things have changed in three hundred years: Horseless carriages, wagons that fly, water just by turning a knob, lights with but a push of a switch or button. And machine-boxes that think! What did Max call them? Computers, I believe._

Yes, this new era promised to be something special for the young Zombie. He ducked down into his grave, and the grave closed after him. To anyone who saw it, the grave would not seem out of the ordinary. Just sunken in from being so very old. No one would guess that a zombie –or _Zombie _(Capital "Z")—now resided in the hole in the ground. A Zombie like no other ever known.

The children would be back that day –and the next, and so on. And Billy would be there for them.

Little did Billy know, however, that he was to soon have a "change of address".

THE END

(Of this story. More to come in other fics.)

Author's Note: The information on 17th Century funerals is fairly accurate. (I looked it up.) Using "Zombie" instead of "zombie" to reference Billy is my indication that he is not your ordinary, movie/video game/RPG zombie. He's intelligent, peaceful, kind, and has no intention of eating anyone's brains or flesh (which he would probably find very disgusting). I treat Zombies like Billy like a race (hence, the capital "Z"), meaning that there might me more of them. (And if I can get my idea for a Hocus Pocus-themed RPG started, there _**COULD **_be…)

Next story: Billy gets a new home.


End file.
